Politique

According to the latest sondages, the prime minister, Francois Fillon, is now slightly more popular (50% approval rating) than Sarkozy (47%). According to the satire column in today's Le Monde, aware of the consequences of being rated above Sarko in the polls, the prime minster has called a crisis meeting. Unable to improve the president's poll rating in the near future, he has decided instead to reduce his own. Unusually, the Elysee palace civil servants have shown enthusiasm in assisting this minsiterial initiative. Plans include taking free holidays on rich friends' yachts and bringing his private life into the public eye. But as Le Monde notes, sometimes there is a lag of time before these measures start to take effect..